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Revolutionary greetings! As always, I come in the vision – the vision for land, independence, socialism and total liberation for all oppressed peoples; for the release of all political prisoners and prisoners of war, and the abolishment of legal slavery in amerikkka. We are seeing a phenomenon with the number of formations and individuals coming together in solidarity in order to organize for the Millions for Prisoners Human Rights March on Washington, D.C., on Aug. 19, 2017.

It was with true sadness that, on Aug. 13, I received the news that legendary California prison activist Hugo Pinell was killed in a California prison. Hugo Pinell was locked up in California state prisons for 50 years! That is insane. Hugo Pinell spent decades teaching, advocating and struggling for human rights, justice and dignity for prisoners. He taught and fought for racial and revolutionary unity among all prisoners.

After winning their freedom in the bloodiest conflict in U.S. history, Blacks were in many cases and places denied basic human, civil and political rights, literally forcing New Afrikans back into slavery by denying them a right to life. Over the years the government declared and waged war on the New Afrikan communities – war on unemployed “vagrants,’ war on crime, war on drugs, war on gangs – culminating in mass incarceration.

Brother Compeer Herman “Hooks” Wallace was a legendary figure throughout the Louisiana state prison system. Myself, Compeer Herman and Compeer Albert “Shaka” Woodfox established the Angola Prison branch of the Louisiana Chapter of the Black Panther Party. I say that the legendary figure is also a hero. Compeer Hooks set a standard for prisoners in particular and all human beings in general.

When discussing the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., especially his “I Have a Dream Speech,” what is often missed is his concern for global justice, particularly in Africa. While Dr. King’s outspokenness about the Vietnam War toward the end of his life has been well documented and discussed, his views about the need to support anti-colonialism and anti-Apartheid in Africa is less so.

In a stunning turn of events, Chokwe defeated Jackson’s three-term incumbent and first African American mayor, Harvey Johnson, the white Republican-financed young Black businessman Jonathan Lee, and others to win leadership of the city with the second highest percentage of Black people in the United States.